The present invention relates to automotive vehicles of the hybrid thermal/electric type or all electric type, either rechargeable or not.
Such vehicles comprise at least one electrical traction machine supplied by an electrical power supply, whereby said machine is located in the vicinity of a drive axle that drives the wheels of this axle.
The term “electric motor” designates the assembly including the electrical machine and a gear box connected to the output shaft of the machine, which is integrally connected with the rotor of the electrical machine.
The gear box adapts the speed of the electrical machine to the torque required at the wheels of the vehicle.
The term “electrical power supply” designates the assembly including a block of electrical accumulator batteries and an electronic power unit. This type of power unit comprises, in particular, a DC/DC direct voltage conversion circuit to adapt the voltage supplied by the block of batteries to the voltage accepted by the on-board network, which is in general 12V, and an inverter circuit which transforms the direct current voltage delivered by the block of batteries into alternative current voltage when the machine operates in a generator mode. The power unit can be unitary with the battery block or be separate from it.
In the case of a so-called front wheel drive vehicle, in other words a vehicle in which the combustion engine is connected to the front axle of the vehicle to provide traction to the vehicle, the trunk is of course located in the rear of the vehicle behind the last row of seats of the vehicle.
The trunk is delimited by the rear part of the vehicle roof and by a floor, also referred to as a trunk floor, which separates and isolates the trunk from the vehicle body, which supports the rear axle of the vehicle.
In this area, the body also supports the exhaust muffler and the fuel tank or part of the fuel tank.
The height of the trunk between the trunk floor and the rear part of the vehicle roof defines the height of the trunk according to the Z-axis, in a three-dimensional reference system normally used to reference a vehicle in space, and therefore depends on the space occupied by the above mentioned elements which are situated directly under the trunk floor.
A rear axle can also be, for instance, a rear axle type with deformable cross beam.
This type of rear axle is generally “H” shaped, whereby the two parallel branches of the “H” define generally longitudinal arms, and the central bar of the H defines a transverse torsion bar referred to as a deformable cross beam, which integrates a so-called stabilization bar, also referred to as an anti-roll bar.
The first ends of the longitudinal arms are connected respectively to the rear wheels of the vehicle through the intermediary of pivot forming linkages, and the second ends are connected to the body of the vehicle through the intermediary of elastic linkages, which also form pivot linkages on the body.